‘He’s a good man.’
‘I know.’ He always had been. And she’d never thought she deserved a man like Leo Magowan. She hadn’t thoughtshe was good enough for him and when she was so mixed up she made the decision that it was best if she left. She’d been lost, scared, grieving over the tragedy as they all were, but most of all she was tired. Tired of not believing her self-worth, of doubting herself and thinking she wasn’t good enough for even her own parents.
‘I always thought you or your brother would bring your kids here for endless summer days,’ Walt reflected. ‘It’s a shame we can’t keep it in the family like the Magowans have. But such is life. We do what we can.’
‘We do.’ She didn’t want to tell her grandad that although she’d stayed away for so long and had only come back to do up the cabin, since she’d got here she’d been hit by an unexpected surge of nostalgia that felt like more than just memories. The task of getting the cabin spruced up and arranging the sale was now accompanied by an array of emotions about the bay and the town. And rather than longing to find a buyer quickly, already she felt trepidation at the thought of even letting a stranger inside.
Walt stood up and finished his last mouthful of tea. ‘Come on, let’s go and see what Camille is up to.’
But before they made it over to the cabin Leo intercepted them after spotting Walt first. ‘Lovely day,’ he said, reminding Nina of their previous polite greetings that she’d been grateful for since initially Leo hadn’t been at all impressed she was back. But now, now she knew she wanted more than the odd exchange and she longed for better conversations like the one on the cabin steps.
‘It most certainly is.’ Walt looked as though he might be thinking of how to leave them alone when they heard a yelp from inside the cabin.
‘What was that?’ But Leo’s question was asked as they all hurried into the cabin. ‘Gran, whatever are you doing?’
Sofa cover half on, half off, she’d slumped onto the sofa. ‘I’ve been wrestling this wretched thing on! I swear they’re made too small.’ She got up. ‘And now I’m putting creases in them again,’ she groaned.
‘Come on, girl,’ said Grandad, making Nina smile because that was the way he’d talked to her grandma when she needed a bit of encouragement. ‘It can’t be that hard.’ But then he changed his focus and looked at Nina and Leo. ‘Maybe we need a bit more strength and should leave it to the youngsters.’
Leo stepped forwards. ‘Come on, Nina, we’ll show them how it’s done.’ And he winked at her, actually winked. And it looked as though he realised a fraction too late that it felt too familiar.
‘We’ll give it a go,’ she agreed.
Leo took one end of the material and she took the other, Nina standing level with the middle of the sofa. ‘Let’s pull on the count of three,’ he suggested.
‘Count of three,’ she agreed. And they counted together.
On three, hands on the material, they pulled with all their might but when the sofa cover still didn’t go on Nina fell backwards onto the floor – she’d been sitting with her feet up against the edge to get a bit more power behind her pull – and she was laughing hard. ‘Camille is right, they’re too small!’
Walt and Camille were chuckling away, Leo too. Walt wouldn’t be defeated though. ‘Between four of us, surely it’ll go on.’
All four of them took positions and pulled as hard as they could when Walt called, ‘Now!’
And with the light blue waffle-weave sofa cover pulled on they stood back to admire their handiwork. Bows tied at the bottom of each arm created the shabby chic effect Nina was after. She could feel the warmth from Leo’s bare arm against hers and his hand was so tantalisingly close as they stood there that she almost reached for his fingers, to feel the connection they’d always had.
But Camille interrupted her thoughts. ‘You know what we need to do now?’ she said.
‘What?’ Leo asked.
And Camille turned at an angle. ‘We have to do the other sofa.’
And with that they all complained but with an edge of amusement. Leo leaned closer to Nina. ‘I should’ve legged it back to the boathouse before she realised.’
And Nina revelled in the conspiracy.
The next cover was way easier with four pairs of hands and when Leo left, although Nina wanted to watch him until he was out of sight, she turned back to admire the lounge.
The painting was finished, the furniture was ready, all there was left to do was accessorise.
Which made it all far too real. The cabin would be up for sale before she knew it and things were going to change yet again. And this time she wasn’t at all sure she wanted them to.
Nina met Maeve in Salthaven town centre mid-afternoon and as she hooked her bag over her chair and sat down she had to wonder whether Maeve got fed up with cafés, given she worked in one.
But when she posed the question Maeve insisted, ‘Notat all. It gives me a chance to size up the competition and report back to Jo.’ She laughed. ‘I’m kidding. As long as I’m sitting down and people are waiting on me rather than the other way round, we’re all good.’
The waitress brought over their hot chocolates and a lemon and poppyseed muffin each and talk turned to the cabin, the decorating and Nina’s recounting of the sofa cover saga. ‘Honestly, I thought Camille was going to keel over she was working so hard to get the thing on, it was like they’d made it two sizes too small.’
‘I’ll bet they look lovely.’ And then she began to smile. ‘It was nice of Leo to help. He seems to be around a lot lately, he’s hardly avoiding you.’
